On November 8, 2005, at 07:00, the liberalization of the .es domain in Spain allowed internet professionals to freely register thousands of domain names, which were previously subject to strict restrictions. Many entrepreneurs woke up early to secure generic and short names before others did. David Carrero, co-founder of Stackscale, managed to register domains such as meteo.es, navidad.es, messenger.es and root.es during that historic early morning.
Currently, 21 years later, .es has consolidated itself as an integral part of Spanish digital identity, having brought an exponential increase in demand and becoming a viable alternative for businesses, individuals and digital projects. However, the administration of the domain still generates criticism, especially regarding ownership and contact change operations.
The current challenge no longer lies in registering a .es, but in the administrative operations that follow, which depend on procedures considered outdated. Carrero highlights the difficulties faced in certain changes, which can generate long waiting times and multiple confirmations, contrasting with the efficiency observed in generic domains such as .com.
The modernization of the .es infrastructure, including automation and the implementation of APIs, emerges as a vital step to ensure the competitiveness of the domain. Although .es maintains the advantage of being directly associated with Spain, the ease of management is crucial so that it does not lose ground to competing domains, in a market saturated with new extensions.
